So how has everyone's season beeen going?

Eric Patterson

Eric Patterson

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Staff member
I know some folks seasons are over but the long dry spell we've been going through makes me wonder just how seasons are/went in other parts of the country. I always figure if we are doing great then somewhere else is not, and vice-versa. If that pet theory is true someone is having the season of their life at my expense! Haha.

Seriously, we've hunted hard the past couple of weeks with little rest and are taking today off to catch up on a few tings before going back to work on Wednesday. By hard I mean hunted nearly every morning and night and in between put a lot of miles on the truck and boat and spent a fair amount of time looking through the binoculars. There's been light shooting at best on the WMAs and from the surrounding areas. Chatting with fellow hunters at boat ramps the story is the same, few ducks and little moving. A conversation with a wildlife officer confirmed our observations, light and many empty bags from checked hunters. If there are good numbers of ducks in North Alabama then they are not using the areas I've hunted over the past 30+ seasons.

The upside to the season is getting to spend quality time with Thomas and introducing the sport of waterfowling to Nic Light. Nic's dad has coached and worked with Thomas in baseball for over three years and when Nic expressed interest in duck hunting I thought he'd really enjoy the sport. He's proven to be a very hard worker, dependable, and a ton of fun to have around. Not to mention he is catching onto the sport very fast, a natural. Jeff Bowen hunted with us a couple times and picked up right away on Nic's good disposition. Jeff told me it's hard to find a teenager who is as polite and respectful as Nic. I agree.

That's my report, what's yours?




 
Low in water! We had a very dry Oct/Nov and well into Dec. Water in that area needs to come up 2-3 feet to get good and huntable. Might write this season off down there. Next year could be perfect. Just have to keep trying. Thanks for asking.
 
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We appear to have a good number of birds on the upper Mobile bay/lower delta but there are a ton of guys chasing them, many of them duck dynasty wannabe's. From what I hear, its tough to get even divers to decoy. I hunted MS Sound once and was shocked by the number of people hunting down there. Never seen so many boats.

Word from up in the Delta is that we don't have many wood ducks at all, which is really unusual.

I hope to get out at least 3 or 4 more times this year, we'll see how it goes.
 
Eric,

We started out like gangbusters here in Arkansas. Four of us limited by 9 am on the opener, and it would've been sooner if we'd shot better and decided to start shooting shovelers.

The lease has been moderately productive, but I don't think we've had a new push of ducks for a little while. Hunted yesterday and the birds would drop from 150 yards straight down to 60 and go into holding pattern. Hunted Saturday in a howling north wind on a private old river lake ringed with cypress and tupelo. Great blind, great company, but the ducks wouldn't quite cooperate. Lots of high ducks trading on the wind. We tallied a wood duck and two gadwall for the morning, along with windburn and frozen snot. One nice thing...the host (classmate of mine in the recent EMBA program) got out of the blind, rode his atv back to camp (200 yards away) and came back about 30 minutes later with bacon/egg biscuits, coffee, and hot chocolate.

Have had two great hunts with Trip Gentry at his spot; 20 bluebills one morning, and then Trip was kind enough to invite Laura and I to hunt in the snow with him and his son two days after Christmas. Trip didn't have power back at his house yet, but he was out there on the pond bank playing the good host. We killed 14 bluebills, a wigeon, three gadwall, and a white-fronted goose. I had almost forgotten how wonderful the sound of wings cutting wind really is...and how cold it can be to sit in the snow...and how quickly you can forget how cold you are when birds are banking into the decoys...I took all handcarved birds for Trip and his son to gun over, and it was nice to see them at work. I had birds out by Ronnie Ladd, Steve McCullough, Bill McAdam, myself, and my Dad....neat mixed rig...and, it worked.

Had a fantastic hunt with Steve McCullough in Kentucky, which I posted up here. Strike that...fantastic weekend...

The numbers are drizzling down; without a really cold push and snow in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, etc., we won't see new birds before the season is out. But I have some roasting/gumbo birds in the freezer, some breasts to make poppers or stir fry, and have had the most fun season in a long time.

About time to get back out in the shop and start carving again...!
 
Very dry in the prarrie pothole region. We were at a minimum 20 yards from the cover to the waters edge. Made hunting hard. Did well that weekend on opener.

First week back home hunting was good. After that, hunting was very poor. I've been keeping track of birds shot the past few seasons and this one was the worse in terms of numbers and species - by a longshot. So by that measurement, hunting was not so good.

By all other measureables, hunting was a good as any other year. Good times, out of the house and away from work - can't get any better than this. Got my Dad out a few more times this year than in years past which is always a nice treat for me. Couldn't get the son to go as mornings he doesn't awake until 10:00 on weekends and weekdays he has school. May have to start tot find afternoon hunting locations.

Mark W
 
The drought really had an impact on my hunting this year. There were only a few marsh areas that I could get to and still be able to get back in time for class/office hours/etc. Those areas were hammered by hunters all season since all the other walkable water was dry this year. I probably saw as many or more ducks than last season, but did not have as much success as I had last year. The ducks just didn't react as well to my presence (yeah, I get that a lot with people, but usually ducks don't know any better :)
 
With this being my first real season back in Illinois and putting together a usable boat I was mainly scouting for next year. I found huntable numbers of ducks but unfortunately they weren't in huntable areas in the pools. Many potenial limit days but jump shooting is illegal. You know the river is low when it takes 12 guys to dig out a beavertail mud boat with a 35PD hanging off the transom. Rick Pierce if you read this and if you remember the Patterson area, the area wasn't accessible by boat for the most part but the duck numbers were like in the old days everytime I went in there. I took a lot of video of good numbers of ducks using the area. I did talk to guys at the ramp hunting the T blinds that were accessible with onesey twosey reports so I know these guys weren't letting the duck numbers out. Two mornings during deer season I kicked up over 500+ Mallards between Ahab Island and the main island. I know that was due to draught effect. I also found that with the draught the guys that put the work into blinds in our pool were hunters and not duck dynasty want-to-be hunters using their blinds most days at least when I was out. The duck Dynasty guys were actually in the pool I live in with a blind on every open spot you could find. I did end the season with several nice Canada geese in the freezer. Looking forward to next season.
 
Can't complain. Taking a few here & there and starting to see birds regularly now that the weather conditions are right. As always, getting the right mix + being in the right place at the right time goes a long way in determining how a day out goes as far as game taken. That being said, because of the flexibility of my daily schedule, I have better odds of hitting those days and figuring out what places and times hold promise, and that sure eliminates a lot of the hassle that comes with having to schedule days to hunt based around my work schedule rather than when conditions on a particular day look good. If I didn't appreciate that opportunity, I don't deserve to have it.

It sure is relaxing to be able to head out when, for the most part, there are very few others out and little pressure for the promising spots. I'd bet there have only been about three occasions this season when there was another boat in the area I was hunting, and even then we wre pllenty far apart.

Like Ray Wylie says in Mother Blues: "On the days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days." That's something I've been trying to remember every time I get the opportunity to get out.
 
Everyduck season is awesome, but pretty much having it off has let me have some fun and get on the birds when we had them. I also learned an important lesson scouting is very important, we just recently recieved migrators in my area (gads,widgeon,blacks,geese,goldeneye,some bills). But we have not received mallards in my area. Knowing the species that are here has allowed us to adapt to give us fair success. It also allows friends who do work to still get into the season. Many times we have rondevoused at a common point to watch the sunrise and scout all our areas.

Adapting and learning has allowed us to experince the fun that is diver hunting we now are already planning to include a layout or two into next years fleet. I still dream of seeing thousands of bluebills rafting up in the sound and one day i will get to gun the big water and chase the seaducks. But theres always next year.

This year was also good because i was able to get 3 new people that have never been duck hunting. One had never been hunting and after many hundreds of questions and a few trips to cabelas he ended up with a deer and a few birds. And a new very expensive addiction.

Overall i am very happy with this season. I have many great memories such as getting some birds over my hand carved, my first diver duck hunt, first goose band, getting some new species.

But after this year its unfortunatly time to grow up and get a real job or hit the lottery.lol
 
HI Eric. I gotta tell you, this may be the best season I've ever had (except for when Dave D. was up here). The jump shooting I did here has been very productive. Thanks to Cheech Kehoe, we've tried a few new places by boat and done well in them. I have some great memories of this season.

John
 
My season is going well considering the conditions that I'm hunting in. It is important to know that I consider duck hunting a "privilege"----thus I won't compare it with last year and or 8 years ago. I have the statistics but will leave it at that.
There are very few ducks in the area just because of our limited habitat. Most of them that usually come down here to winter and then head north on the reverse migration have flown south to Chihuahua, Mexico. So when the temps rise some hopefully in the next couple of weeks, maybe we'll begin to see some of those birds flying north.
Habi has made my season. I think I have been able to scratch enough ducks to keep her busy and interested. I enjoy the heck out of her company.
Just 10 days when I was doing quite well on a small channel of water where I hunt, I thought I had it made. Well since then, when the Rio Grande was flowing at 900 cubic feet per second, we have had some major changes. This morning I read the chart and it was flowing at 407 cfs. That is not a good sign especially for this time of the year.
Like others have already spoken of, the drought is a major factor and is something that a lot of us might have to contend with again next season---
Al
 
Eric,

While my season went very well I think your statement of ducks not in the same places as previous years was true for WI this year as well, due to our lack of water. Most marshes in southern WI were dry. Luckily I am more of a field and big water hunter so dry conditions actually helped us, IMO. The marsh rats that I know had very long and tough years.

While I enjoyed a successful year this year again was warm and our season dates did not coincide with big water ducks. About a week before Christams McKinley Marina in Milwaukee became absolutely covered with birds that were not here prior. Even now most of our ramps and marinas remain open. I know I'm getting picky now but I sure would like to see us get a longer season on the big lake. Ill try and get pictures today or tomorrow of the raft of birds that can be seen from shore.
 
Teal and early duck season was really good to me this year.the last couple weeks a lil tough ,there has been some birds but alto of pressure also .the birds seem reluctant to really decoy well
 
Eric,
Very slow in Southern Maryland. Another season that seems like the weather just won't push anything down from up the coast. Mainly shooting Buffleheads, an occasional Goldeneye or Mallard.

dc
 
Big ducks have been fairly light, but are starting to show up. Starting to see some groups of divers trading up and down the bay. We are loaded with geese right now (been pouring in for the last week of so), but have been targeting ducks on the creeks and tidal marshes along the bay. May have to turn a little focus to geese as the season winds down here (3+ more weeks) barring a freeze-up (unlikely).
 
Eric,
Very slow in Southern Maryland. Another season that seems like the weather just won't push anything down from up the coast. Mainly shooting Buffleheads, an occasional Goldeneye or Mallard.

dc

Dave, I don't know what is happening to our south, but the weather in northern New England should be pushing birds south. We just hit classic "late season" conditions this week. That means pretty much all the freshwater is locked up, and the salt marshes and shallow protected saltwater coves are starting to get some ice. Our black ducks and a few mallards are getting concentrated in a few spots where many of them will be all winter, and that usually means most of the rest of our birds have headed south.
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Our season here on Long Island has been pretty good. I've been mainly hunting geese. The first few days were great, with the birds decoying pretty good. And a lot more birds have shown up in the past week. We even had a flock of snows cross our spread, (the guys hunting the field close to ours dropped a few as they took a look at their spread). And I've herd reports of others taking a few. It's the first time I've seen them here on Long Island in my brief 5 years of waterfowl hunting.
As far as ducks go, I've been only able to get out 3 times to duck hunt. So aside from shooting a few in our goose spread, I haven't seen much. But I know divers are here. And going to target them on Friday. I should get out a little more for ducks in the final 3+ weeks of our season.
 
Jeff,
It's about time you decided to get some weather and send some birds my way. I thought I was going to have to make a road trip and round the birds up myself. I didn't vacation in Maine last year, but am trying to get back there this year. An old carving buddy is almost 90 and I sure want to see him a few more times before he is gone. He's like the Grandpa I never had. I could sit for days and listen to him talk about hunts with George Soule. L.L. Bean, and all of his many adventures in the Maine woods. I will be heading out tomorrow and Saturday to see if your birds have shown up. Thanks for the update.

dc
 
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